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Scar of the Survivor's "No Scar But This" lets you recover 1d8 hit points as an action. It's a transcendence ability so you can only use it once per round, but if you're not in combat that's one action to use No Scar But This, then one action to put your spark back in your body ikon to use it again next round.

I'm not seeing anything that stops you from using this to just heal up to full between every encounter, assuming you have a minute or so to use it. I'm not necessarily against the idea, it does seem very demigodly, but I'm not sure it's an intended thing since I'm not sure of any other class that gets to do anything similar.

Edit: Actually I think the Paladin can do something similar with Lay on Hands, but that's a minimum of 10 minutes per application. I guess it technically is another form of unlimited out of combat healing though, so maybe it's not as unprecedented as I thought.

I realize that there are limited options in the playtest, but I really hope there are plans for more non-bomb related Alchemist feats in the full book. I love playing poison or elixer oriented Alchemists, but as it stands, there really isn't a way to focus on either of those as an Alchemist, since almost all of your feats are based on using or modifying bombs and nothing else.

Just as an example, the first feat you'll want if you're an Alchemist that wants to poison people isn't available until level 10. This is... disappointing.

So far, all I've seen from the Bard is instruments, and not only does it not mention non-instrumental performances for a Bard, the Performance skill specifically separates singing and oratory, as well as dancing, from playing an instrument.

Can we really no longer make Bards that focus on song or dance or (my personal favorite) oration anymore?

So, a major problem I have with archetypes is the ability score requirements (I can be a full-power Wizard with 10 Intelligence, but I can't dabble in wizardry unless I'm a genius?), and a major problem I've seen other people mention is that you can only take class feats of half your level. I think we can solve both issues by removing the ability score requirements, and replacing the "Basic X" and "Advanced X" feats with the following:

Multiclass Feat (Archetype)
Feat 4
Prerequisites: [Class] Dedication
Gain a [Class] feat. For the purposes of qualifying for the feat taken this way, your effective [Class] level is equal to half your level plus your [Ability] modifier, to a maximum of your level -2.
Special: You can select this feat multiple times. Each time you select it, you gain a new [Class] feat.

This way, if you really want to dig into your multiclass's high level feats, you'll need to shore up your multiclass's primary ability score... but if you just want to dabble a bit, you don't have to worry about it too much.

So one thing I'm having an issue with is the way certain things in the Playtest book are organized, namely powers and skill feats.

Generally speaking, if I'm going looking for a spell or a power, that's all I'm looking for: I'm either looking for the mechanics of a power that my class is giving me, or I'm looking through my available spells in order to see what I can prepare or learn. There is no reason for spells and powers to share the same section of the book. Ideally, I'd rather see each class have its own powers section to make it easy to find the power I'm looking for (with a line referencing the spells section for the rules on how they work, since they work like spells), but I'd at least settle for powers and spells having their own unique sections, then having powers be divided by class in their own section. As far as I can tell, powers are unique to each class, so there's no reason they should be all mixed together, and especially not mixed together with the spells as well.

As for skill feats, it's the same thing: when I go looking for a skill feat, I don't want to have to go look through the entire list of skill feats. If I'm looking to take a new skill feat, for example, I'm far more likely to want to choose a skill to be awesome at, and then pick a skill feat from that skill's list. And if, for example, I remember that there's a skill feat that does something cool, but I don't remember the name of it, it would be much easier to just go to the appropriate skill's section and find the skill feat there, rather than having to read through the whole list again finding the one I want. Skill feats that require a skill should each be listed at the end of their respective skill's description, and skill feats that don't should have their own section before the general feats section (again, with a line reminding players that they can still be chosen as general feats).

Also, one final little nitpick that doesn't really deserve its own thread, but it's a general feat and I just mentioned general feats, so I'll put it here: Ancestral Paragon allows you to choose an ancestry feat of your level -1, but that limitation doesn't matter, and it specifically messes things up for humans. There are no ancestry feats with a level requirement that's equal to that of a general feat, since they're awarded at different levels, so you're always going to be forced to choose an ancestry feat of a lower level anyway, since those are the only ones you'd qualify for. Unless, of course, you're a human, who has the ability to choose a general feat at 1st level... which means that if you choose Ancestral Paragon, you gain the ability to choose a level 0 ancestry feat. That obviously doesn't work. Of course, experienced players will just say "Don't pick that feat at first level.", but since the limitation doesn't matter anyway (as mentioned above), it would make far more sense to just have it be a level 3 general feat and let you take any ancestry feat that you qualify for.

So in the latest Glass Cannon Podcast for the playtest, it was mentioned that the wand of magic missile had 5 charges, but it was later said that it would still require Resonance to cast from it. I think these specific statements need clarification. The only reason I'm okay with Resonance as a mechanic is because it can be used to replace the need to track charges on a dozen or more magic items, not add to it. If we're going to have to deal with tracking charges on individual items as well as tracking Resonance, that removes what is, in my opinion, the main benefit of using the mechanic in the first place (as there are many ways to deal with the Wand of CLW issue).

Is this really how things like wands will work, requiring both charges and Resonance, or is this another case of the Podcast getting something wrong?

I just started watching the Know Direction podcast, and got to the part where it's mentioned that there aren't rules for bucklers yet. I'd like to capitalize on that to make a suggestion to fix something that's bothered me about D&D for a very long time:

Bucklers are not strapped to the forearm.

They're just very small shields that are held in the hand, like any other shield (most of which were not strapped to your arm either, unless you were mounted), and they're used to block and parry actively. Strapping a buckler to your forearm would actually dramatically reduce its effectiveness.

Could we please have actual bucklers this time around? Just give them a parry option instead of blocking after you use the raise shield action. We need options for parrying anyway, this should be one of them.

So in the playtest podcast, they pointed out how skills work, namely that you'll have Untrained (ability - 1), Trained (level + ability), and Expert (level + ability + 1). As a side-note, they also pointed out that Expert, Master, and Legend are used to replace masterwork on weapons, for +1, +2, and +3 to hit, respectively (I point this out because I'm using it for my predictions on how skills work).

I have one major concern with this: why is the difference between Trained and Expert only a +1 bonus? That does not, to me, evoke the idea of an expert at anything, being only 5% better at something than someone who's just had the basic level of training. Especially if, as I suspect, Master and Legend are just +2 and +3 in the same way that they are for weapons. +1 is not a large difference in skill, and having so little difference in skill between these designations just feels very... underwhelming.

Is this really how different levels of skill mastery are going to be done? Will Master and Legend skills be just +1 above the previous rank like with weapons? Will there be a large number of side-benefits available to make up for the fact that becoming a Legend in a skill looks like it will only make you 15% better than a basic trainee? I noted that if Legend being +3 is the case, it ends up just like a full investment in a class skill in PF1, so I'm really hoping that means true mastery of a skill will be demonstrated in special abilities rather than raw numbers, but other than a tidbit about Expert Craft allowing you to craft Expert level weapons, I haven't seen anything on this.

Could we get some developer input on this, or is it too early to reveal the plans for skills?

I've been working up a pretty heavily house-ruled setting with no actual spellcasters, and in the process have been trying to come up with a few archetypes to remove spellcasting from some of the classes that I still want to include. This is what I've got for the Investigator so far (I know that the Sleuth exists, but I wanted another option to be available). I'd love some feedback on the power level. The overall purpose of the abilities (studying a battlefield before fighting on it to gain bonuses, being able to give your allies bonuses if they do what your plans tell them to do, and so on) are where I want them to be, but getting the mechanics balanced properly is a big step, and I thought I'd run it by some other people to see if there are any glaring issues. And if somebody can point out a better way to do what I want this to do, that's always a plus. In addition, if there's any part of the mechanics that's unclear, I'd like to know now before I present it for actual play, just to make sure it's easy to understand.

So, thoughts?

(Just to note: I'm aware that some things - like what exactly constitutes a "battlefield" and what types of actions can be taken in order to perform a task as part of a plan - are somewhat subjective and will require GM interpretation. I'm okay with this.)

The Tactician

Battlefield Training
You gain proficiency with martial weapons and with shields. In addition, you can use your Inspiration to modify attack rolls without spending extra points of Inspiration.

Tactician's Lore (Replaces Alchemy)
Starting at first level, you have the ability to study a battlefield and make plans and preparations that allow you and your allies to gain the best possible tactical advantage from that battlefield. Studying a battlefield takes one hour, and you can only have a number of battlefields studied at one time equal to your Intelligence bonus (minimum 1). If you study a new battlefield when you already have the maximum number of battlefields studied, you must choose to "forget" one of your current studied battlefields. The size of a battlefield can vary, but it must be a specific location – such as "The Dockyards of Roseport" or "The Field of Woe". You can't study a battlefield from a distance - you must be able to walk through the battlefield itself, and you must be able to concentrate on studying the battlefield while you do so (this means that some battlefields, like an enemy camp, might require one or more skill checks - such as Stealth - before you can study them properly). If you can't walk through the majority of a battlefield in one hour or less, then that battlefield is too large to study (though you may be able to study a smaller part of that area as its own battlefield).

While within a studied battlefield, you and all allies that can see and hear you gain a competence bonus to attack rolls (including combat maneuver checks), damage rolls, and all checks and saves made to interact with the battlefield itself (such as Acrobatics or Athletics checks to maneuver the battlefield's terrain, or Stealth checks to hide withing the battlefield, or Fortitude saves to resist the effects of hot or cold weather on the battlefield). This bonus also adds to any bonus to AC, CMD or Reflex saves granted to your or your allies by cover that lies within the studied battlefield. The bonus is +1 at first level, and increases by +1 at every fifth level (to a maximum of +5 at twentieth level).

You can spend a point of Inspiration as a full round action to quickly assess a battlefield that you are currently in, which allows you to treat the battlefield as a studied battlefield for the next hour, which does not count against your normal limit of studied battlefields. However, you do not grant your studied battlefield bonuses or the bonus damage from Press the Advantage to allies on a battlefield studied in this way. When you study a battlefield in this way, the battlefield can't be larger than what you can see from where you are already standing.

The Perfect Plan (Replaces Swift Alchemy)
At fourth level, you have learned to make detailed and comprehensive plans, allowing you and your allies to better perform various tasks in order to accomplish those plans. You can spend ten minutes to detail a planned course of action to any number of allies, then assign each ally a single specific task in your plan (such as "Sneak into the castle and open the gates from within." or "Subdue the guards at the east entrance.") For each ally that you assign to a task, you can give that ally one of your points of Inspiration (which means that you can't assign more tasks than you have points of Inspiration available). Allies given Inspiration in this way can spend their point of Inspiration to add to any attack roll, ability check, skill check or saving throw that is directly related to performing their assigned task. The ally gains the benefits of any ability you have that modifies the use of Inspiration except the ability to add an Inspiration die to a roll without spending Inspiration. Any Inspiration that isn't spent after an hour is lost.
At tenth level, each ally that you give Inspiration to in this way gains two points of Inspiration instead of one (this still costs you only one Inspiration per ally).

Press the Advantage (Replaces Studied Combat and Studied Strike)
At fourth level, you gain the ability to use your knowledge of a battlefield's terrain to turn a minor advantage into a major one. While within a studied battlefield, whenever you hit with a melee or ranged attack against a creature that you were flanking or that is denied its Dexterity bonus to AC, that attack deals +1d6 damage. The damage increases by +1d6 at every sixth level above level four, to a maximum of +3d6 damage at nineteenth level. Any ally that can see and hear you also gains this bonus damage. The bonus damage provided by the ability is precision damage, and doesn't apply to attacks when the target has concealment or to ranged attacks against targets beyond 30 feet.

Battlefield Training: I want this archetype to have a bit more of a martial bent. This ability is also designed to make up for the fact that Tactician's Lore requires a lot more setup and is far more limited in scope than Alchemy. This is in part meant to make sure the Tactician has good options even when they haven't had the time to study a battlefield before a fight.

Tactician's Lore: The primary ability. The scaling of the bonuses is pretty standard for abilities like this. The benefits take a lot of preparation to set up, and won't get to be used in every fight, but that's part of the intention of this archetype: I want it to truly shine when it's had time to prepare for a fight, and I want its abilities to get the player thinking ahead. I want to incentivize things like setting up ambushes and the like.

The Perfect Plan: Again, this is here to incentivize preparing for an upcoming encounter rather than just rushing into things. It also helps shore up the role of the Tactician as party support. Plus, it rewards the Tactician having a deep knowledge of their allies' capabilities, allowing you to assign tasks that best fit a given ally's talents.

Press the Advantage: I mostly created this as an alternative because I didn't want the Tactician to have to keep track of too many stacking things, and adding the Studied Combat bonus to the Tactician's Lore bonus would get a little cluttered and finicky. So instead, I expanded the support role to basically give everybody a small amount of Sneak Attack. The overall damage boost is probably more than the Studied Combat and Strike abilities would have granted, but since it only functions in a studied battlefield - which, again, won't be available in every fight - I think that's okay.

So I'm about to start DM'ing some official Society sessions at my local hobby shop, and I was just wondering about improvisation in games; how much leeway do I have? Obviously, I can't just start changing treasure tables and whatnot. But anybody who's ever DM'ed will know that no player worth their salt will stick to the script, and I really hate being the guy that just goes "No, it doesn't say anything about that in here, get back on the rails."

So, how much improv can I use in sessions? How closely am I required to stick to what's written? Obviously, no changing the base story or anything... but how far can I go when they do something unexpected?

So I noticed a few of the Alchemist archetypes weaken your bombs to d4 instead of d6. But I can't find any benefits for this; any other abilities come at much later levels, and still replace other abilities. Am I missing something? It seems unfair to take a hit to your main class ability without getting anything in return.

Specifically, I'm speaking of the Psychonaut and the Reanimator, whose special abilities don't come until 5th and 7th level, respectively, and still replace other class abilities. These don't really seem powerful enough to warrant weakening a primary class ability for 5-7 levels before seeing any kind of return at all.